Re: Multichannel audio listening

[Joel Roth <joelz@pobox.com>]

Rodolfo Medina wrote:
> .... I want to buy one of those multichannel
> soundcards...  Do you think this one could be all right...?
> 
> 
> https://www.strumentimusicali.net/product_info.php/products_id/51790/behringer-umc404hd.html?gclid=Cj0KCQiAuP7UBRDiARIsAFpxiRKgsptPW1qxkEw793ahs684ltlhyh5dcIgzLJXtDh39CZA8IEX3qgIaAnquEALw_wcB
> 
> Rodolfo

I looked around a bit, and the UMC404HD seems to be 'class
compliant' which means that the linux USB audio drivers can
access the most important functions. Behringer is definitely
on the low-cost end of things, but a lot of their hardware
seems to be of decent quality. 

A useful feature of this card is hardware monitoring, so
that you can listen to the audio during recording without a
time lag. 

Now that you've described your application (recording piano,
possibly with vocals) I think -- unless you're especially
comfortable and patient with low-level commands such as
ecasound provides -- you may like to run some kind of
multitrack recorder or DAW application. This will let you
adjust volume levels and add various plugins to the
different tracks. It's also common to duplicate a mono
signal to stereo and adjust the position right or left in a
stereo mix (e.g. panning).  

Someone already mentioned Audacity, which is quite easy to
use.

More sophisticated software lets you apply effects in
realtime, so it's easier to diddle with parameters. 

For professional quality with all possible features,
there is Ardour. Another very well developed application is
Qtractor. 

I'll also shamelessly mention a lightweight DAW called Nama
that provides the most important functions for recording and
mixing.  It's an application layer driven by text commands,
hotkeys and/or a simple GUI that runs Ecasound to provide
the signal processing. The debianized version is slightly
out of date, but you can at least get an idea of what it
looks like.  One of several unusual features is a preset
system that lets you set plugin defaults, re-use chains of
plugins, and create templates for groups of tracks or entire
projects. I'm the biased author ;-) 

For hardware or software questions you cannot answer by
reading the docs or doing a web search, I'll refer you to
the many experts on the Linux Audio Users mailing list
(LAU).

cheers,

-- 
Joel Roth